This new optical loupes prototype are digital augmented reality (AR) smart glasses headset for ... [+]
Surgeons and dentists use optical loupes to magnify an area in surgery or a dental procedure. They are frames with two magnifying lenses attached to the glass to enlarge the surgery area. Optical loupes came into existence in 1876 when a German ophthalmologist used a pair of convex lenses with a light source mounted on a headband.
Mark Greget, Founder and CEO of NuEyes, says traditional optical loupes are fixed magnification, meaning the doctor or clinician must hunch over during surgery or dental procedure for hours on end due because there isn’t a tilt optical angle.
“This creates neck strain, back fatigue and other long-term chronic issues,” said Greget. “The field of view is very limited to a small viewing area, and the depth of field is also limited to about one to one and a half inches.”
Greget, who founded NuEyes in 2016 to provide veterans and people with limited vision glasses that could help them be sighted again, created a new version of optical loupes called NuLoupes.
NuLoupes is a digital augmented reality (AR) smart glasses headset for surgeons and dentists.
“This creates a digital AR ecosystem, so if a surgeon wants to do surgical navigation or AR overlays, dictation, remote health, they now have a system that can do all of that,” said Greget. “NuLoupes enables the clinician to take 4 or 5 pieces of equipment/medical devices they use in the practice or operating room and combine them into one pair of AR smart glasses specifically designed for their use case.”
NuLoupes are a prototype designed for medical specialties that require magnification and digital or AR overlays, such as spinal, neuro, orthopedic, ENT, vascular, and plastic surgeons, as well as dermatologists and dentists.
“Current AR headsets on the market offer a single forward-facing camera, which offers zero usage from a surgical or dental point of view,” said Greget. “What most are touting is a digital overlay in some cases, a hologram heart, or CT scan floating in the operating room.”
Greget says the major issue is that none of these headsets were built for a specific use case or problem.
“The tech companies built the headsets and said, ‘What can YOU do with it?,” said Greget. “At NuEyes, we spent years and millions of dollars asking the consumer whether they have low vision or a clinician in his setting the ultimate question, ‘What are your pain points and how can we solve them to make your life easier?”
“It sounds like common sense, but looking at some of our competitors that have raised billions, these basic questions have not and continue not to be addressed,” said Greget.
But the journey to create a more evolved pair of optical loupes started in 2018 for Greget.
“A huge medical distributor invited me to trial our original prototype at a New York hospital. The prototype featured a single forward-facing RGB camera that was tilted 80 degrees downward to combat the neck and back fatigue,” said Greget.
Greget says that after the surgery, the spinal surgeon told him it was one of the best prototypes he had ever seen but was interested in adding depth perception like his traditional loupes.
“This was a huge oh crap moment as we had missed one massive key element to traditional loupes, which is depth of field and depth perception,” added Greget.
Greget says the team went back to the drawing board in 2019 on the camera system, knowing it had to be better than traditional optical loupes.
“After three years of research and development and hiring [..] engineers well versed in stereopsis, we invented the first camera system that features a dual 3D camera system that outperforms the human eye with 5-6 inches of depth of field,” said Greget. “It can also magnify farther than traditional loupes with no image degradation and no latency or lag issues.”
“Design-wise, the team also shrunk the 3D camera system to fit into a nice looking pair of augmented reality smart glasses coming in at 125 grams, similar to other surgical loupe designs, but with the much-needed ergonomics as well as the camera system,” said Greget.
Greget says that in 2016, he and his team had to become experts in a simple and easy user experience that helps people with low vision regain their independence with their first smart glasses, NuEyes.
“This product was no different,” said Greget. “We want to make the clinicians’ lives easier. The clinician either turns on the smart glasses or has his assistant turn them on, and the cameras start up right away,” said Greget.
“In most cases, they have already adjusted the camera angle to their preferred tilting angle, but if not, they can simply move the camera up or down to their preferred setting or adjustment,” added Greget.
Clinicians can also use voice commands to control the camera’s magnification and record taking pictures. Greget says the company is also developing several AR apps for use with voice commands. “The product is designed around a hands-free functionality and simplicity of use.”
